February 3, 2010

CERRITOS COLLEGE

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3, 2010 WWW.TALONMARKS.COM VOLUME 54, NO. 13

First issue free, additional copies $1

Merino vies for mayor

Campus commits to Haiti relief effort

See iFALCON Page 2

Vivian AguirreStaff Writer

[email protected]

In the wake of the recent catastrophic seismic events in Haiti, Cerritos College with the collaboration of the ASCC and other relief programs, seek to gather funds and donations for those in need.

During the recent ASCC meeting on Jan. 20, Omar Anderson, member of the Student Senate, brought to attention the incident. He asked for the help and sup-port of his peers by proposing to start a relief fund on

campus for the Haitian victims through a collection box.

“I am from Jamaica; the people of Haiti are my neighbors. When I found out what had occurred I was shocked to see that a catastrophe of this nature had struck with such force. In a country where poverty pre-vails, the destruction it left behind is devastating,” An-derson stated.

“We need to empathize with the people of Haiti, as California residents we can relate to this incident. We are prone to an earthquake perhaps of this magnitude at any given time,” added Anderson.

Oscar Franco, president of the ASCC said, “After hearing the devastating news and the idea Student Sen-ator Anderson proposed, the ASCC cabinet members agreed to support this amazing cause. If we are able to help out then let’s do it! They need our support,” Franco added.

“As of now, we are strategizing where to place other collection boxes around campus and help spread the word,” Anderson said.

The Cerritos College campus has agreed to collabo-rate with the Red Cross International Response Fund to collect any donations.

In conjunction with this program the ASCC is help-ing by providing a donation bucket, located in the of-fice of Student Activities which can be found next to the student book store.

“I encourage all of the student body to come to-gether and give a donation, a dollar, anything, even loose change. Any contribution will make a difference,” Franco stated.

“We need to open our hearts and lend a hand,” An-derson added.

The nursing department, through a program run by

Habits a year later

Rebeca VegaStaff Writer

[email protected]

“Do you falcon?” It’s safe to say this is a question that just about all students at Cerritos College have come upon, whether they have walked under the huge banners hanging over the library entrances, accessed the school’s main Web site, or flipped open the cover of this semester’s class schedule.

Since its inception last year, co-ordinators of the “Habits of Mind” campaign have found several ways to work the iFALCON slogan into campus resources, in turn, lead-ing students to ask “what is iFAL-CON?” Many have actually set out to find answers mainly by clicking on the iFALCON site link found on the school’s home page, to dis-cover that iFALCON is an acronym representing six core study habits students are encouraged to utilize: Focus, Advance, Link up, Compre-hend, Organize, and New Ideas.

While some have already taken the initiative and become avid “iF-ALCONers,” campaign coordina-tors worry about the large portion of the student population which is yet to “link up.”

Following Faculty Senate Presi-dent Debra Moore’s announcement last September that the iFALCON campaign was approved for a Title V Grant through which it will re-ceive $541,163 in the first of the grant’s five years, those in the know about the Habits of Mind campaign are asking “What’s in store for iF-ALCON?” and those in the dark are soon to find out.

With the banners, posters, Web site, blog, Facebook page, MySpace page, Twitter account, student club, student videos, scholarship, and monthly “task force” meetings in place, the team of iFALCON co-ordinators led by Humanities and Social Sciences Interim Dean Dr. Bryan Reece is now focused on meeting all nine of its goals for this semester which include:

Orlando Dominguez/TMPeople before profits: Cerritos College student Stevie Merino (right) shook hands with her supporters at her campaign kick-off on Saturday. Merino hopes to instill hope and teach people about socialism regardless of the outcome of the elections and whether or not she takes office as mayor of Long Beach.

Elieth KoulzonsEditor in Chief

[email protected]

“She needs to go in there and take that selfish, thieving, good for nothing Bob Foster out of office. All he has done is put a bunch of racist jerks into police uniforms and made so many inconsiderate cuts to social services. It’s about time someone stepped up and began fighting the fight for the right reason,” said Long Beach resident Cristina Cortez.

Cerritos College student Stevie Merino is officially in the running for mayor of Long Beach against incumbent Bob Foster in the April 13 elections.

The 21-year-old is running a socialist cam-paign and said she is not taking this lightly and is going to put in all the effort possible to be-come mayor.

She said, “Enough is enough. It’s time to put people’s needs before profits. This is not just another school project to me. It’s impor-tant because I believe that people are impor-tant. I think it’s only fair that the people of Long Beach have a candidate that represents the kind of change that many candidates pre-tend to be.”

Students like psychology major Steve Moreno believe Merino does not need to win to get her point across. He believes she has al-ready become an inspiration to so many other college students who want to make a differ-ence in politics or whatever it is they may want to pursue.

“I don’t think she needs to win to give the mayor a scare and make him realize that the decisions he is making are not benefitting any-one other than the police officers that get paid for tying their shoelaces,” he said.

Merino’s main priority is to cut the budget of the Police Department, which takes up two thirds of the city’s budget.

Long Beach resident Tina Lopez believes Merino will get a lot of support because of the aspirations and the changes she wishes to make.

“(Merino) is young and is very unexperi-enced, but the changes that she will focus on making as mayor are changes that many resi-dents wish would be done,” she said.

Sociology major Agustina Frontera agrees with Lopez and supports Merino for fighting primarily to cut unnecessary expenses and focus on giving that money to free education and social services, which Merino describes “as rights.”

“She may be young but she is fighting for all the right reasons. Even if she doesn’t win she will definitely make a difference,” she said.

See RELIEF Page 2

Storms ravaged Cerritos

Andrea MoraStaff Writer

[email protected]

Everyone living in southern California felt the madness of the week-long storm that occurred two weeks ago. Cerritos College stu-dents sure felt it too.

Martin Reyes, undecided ma-jor, said that the worst part about going to school during the storm for him was, “being on crutches and parking.”

Business major, Lauren Ra-gan said the most difficult part of going to school during the storm was, “finding parking that wasn’t flooded.”

The rainstorm did not cause much damage to the campus, be-sides the many leaks some build-ings suffered.

Librarian Mary Augugliaro said, “We had probably four leaks.”

They had to remove a computer because of a leak and had to set up trash cans in many areas to help catch the leaking water.

Another building hit hard by the storms was the Business Educa-tion building.

Joy Snef, Division Secretary of the Business Education Depart-ment, mentioned that many leaks did not come from the ceiling, but rather came from the windows.

Ironically, the older windows were not the problem, but it was the newly installed windows that leaked water.

Snef also mentions that many textbooks and personal belongings were damaged; the problems have not been fixed.

Estella Castillo, a custodian worker, says that a quick fix they used in the physical science build-ing was to, “put rags on the win-dows.” She also mentioned that the problems have been fixed.

Many cities across Los Angeles and Orange County felt the damage of the storm.

NBC reports on its Web site that Long Beach received about 1.5 inches of rain in half an hour.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 • www.talonmarks.com2 - NEWS

Were on Facebook and want to hear from stu-dents, each week we fea-ture useful student advice which goes along with the iFALCON acronym.

Katherine Garcia

iFALCON Treasure

Auto students face offRebeca Vega

Staff [email protected]

Ten Los Angeles county high school seniors were asked to test their automotive skills in a race against the clock last Saturday at

the 11th Annual LA County Auto Tech Competi-tion.

The event, sponsored by the Southland Mo-tor Car Dealers Association (SMCDA) and the Greater Los Angeles New Car Dealers Asso-ciation (GLANCDA), was hosted by Cerritos College’s Automotive Technology Department and determined the two winning teams who will compete at this year’s National Automotive Technology Competition in New York set to take place in April.

This year’s winners were Southeast Regional Occupational Program’s Alejandro Torres and Juan Prado, accompanied by their instructor Abel Ponce, as well as Evan Weller and Dylan Landy with their instructor John Andersen from Aguora High School.

“We were excited and happy enough winning the team award, but to win overall is a great ac-complishment,” said Southeast ROP instructor Abel Ponce.

Torres was relieved and is looking forward to traveling to New York. “This is great for our last year of high school. It’s time to hit the books,” Torres said.

Schools that participated in the competi-tion were Aguora, Artesia, Canyon, Highland, La Habra, Lynwood, Sonora, Southeast ROP, Van Nuys, and Venice.

Both the SMCDA and the GLANCDA spon-sored five teams each, consisting of two of the most skilled students in each school’s automotive education department.

Competing teams were accompanied by an instructor as well as parents and others who wished to provide moral support throughout the event.

Karen Landy, who accompanied her son Dylan from Aguora High School, was glad she attended to see her son win first place. “It’s very exciting and we’re so proud of him. It’s a won-derful program because it helps a lot of kids get into the job market,” she said.

High school instructors present at the event wanted to make sure students gained the most out of the experience. Monrovia High School in-structor Phil Jelinek stressed the importance of providing early preparation to students who are interested in attending trade school after gradu-ating as opposed to conventional four-year insti-tutions.

“These events are essential because they open up [high] schools to colleges in the area that teach automotive technology. Sometimes high schools place too much stress on the A-G cur-riculum when not every [student] is going to a UC school,” said Jelinek.

The semi-final leg of the competition re-quired each team to complete several tasks at 10 different stations in 12-minute inter-

vals. Once each identification, measurement, and repair task was completed, teams submitted worksheets to station judges for scoring.

Highland team seniors and 2nd place win-ners Eddie Aquilina and Alyssa Salazar admitted to enjoying themselves despite being nervous. “It’s fun, but we just want to do well,” they said.

Employees from sponsoring dealerships oversaw competition proceedings and served as judges. Guest Judge Tom Rosdahl from Pierce College directed students at Station 2- Measur-ing Cylinder Bore and Piston Skirt and used the

event as an opportunity to network with future college students as well as prospective employers for his own students.

“It’s good to see what’s going on in high schools and meet and talk to teachers. These skills competitions are important because they give recognition to students and schools,” Ros-dahl said.

Volunteer judges from nearby dealerships took advantage of the opportunity to get to know California’s future automotive technicians.

Competition Judge Billy Stewart from Longo Toyota said “it’s very important to build relationships with high schools and

community colleges and to see what the industry is leading to. We take it very seriously.”

As host, Cerritos’ Automotive Technology Department provided students with cars, ma-chinery, and tools to work with which have all been donated by outside manufacturers.

Aside from walking away with a plaque, bag of complimentary prizes provided by MATCO Tools, and noteworthy prizes such as a set of 2-drawer wheel carts for the winning team, stu-dents also received applications for the CNC-DA’s Scholarship and an internship opportunity at a sponsoring dealership.

With this year’s competition behind them, facilitators at Cerritos’ Technology Division are looking forward to hosting next year’s event and more with the division expansion currently un-der construction.

“We are definitely looking forward to next year. We’ll see if we can get some different kinds of activities going,” said Amna Jara Program Fa-cilitator for the Southland/Cerritos Center for Transportation Technologies.“Due to the school’s location, we’ve attracted the attention of several corporations in the greater LA area, she added.”

Geared up: Justin Scott (left) and Jonathan Campos (right) measure a cylinder bore during the 11th annual Los Angeles Auto Tech competition held at Cerritos College.Orlando Dominguez/TM

iFALCON: prepares to take flightContinued from Page (1)

finding a way to send out a mass weekly e-mail to every student en-rolled at Cerritos College, incorpo-rating iFALCON into all “counter transactions” on campus, and de-veloping a plan to integrate iFAL-CON into core math and English courses effective next fall.

Beginning this semester, every student registered under the Hu-manities and Social Sciences Divi-sion receives a weekly e-mail from Dr. Reece. The e-mail, titled “This Week at Cerritos,” includes a list of upcoming academic events and meetings, financial aid and scholar-ship opportunities, Transfer Center activities, and club activities, as well as iFALCON workshops and a per-sonal message.

The question now is how to send it out to 23,000 stu-dents,” Reece said. In ef-forts to gauge the e-mail’s effectiveness in reaching out to stu-dents and seeing how many then connect to the iFALCON Web site, Re-ece linked the e-mail to the tracking tool “Mail Chimp.”

Out of the 7,000 e-mails sent out for week two, all but 50 were received. 38 percent of those received were opened and one percent of those who opened the message then visited the iFAL-CON Web site.

Another semester goal for Reece and his team is to make iFALCON a part of every “counter transaction” at Cerritos, meaning that every time a student asks for assistance at a counter, such as in the bookstore or library, they will be reminded what it means to Focus, Advance, Link up, Comprehend, Organize, and incorporate New ideas into his or her study regimen.

While much effort by Reece and his fellow iFALCON coordinators has been placed on advertising, the team is also currently developing a plan to incorporate Habits of Mind into core math and English class curriculum and College orienta-tions.

Students can expect to experi-ence this synthesis as soon as next

fall. “It’s a major discussion taking place right now,” Reece said. One of the major concerns expressed by instructors to iFALCON coordina-tors is not having enough time dur-ing class to introduce the campaign to students.

English Professor Steve Clifford, co-adviser of the iFALCON club hopes to aid instructors in viewing iFALCON’s ideals differently. “We want to shift that misunderstand-ing and talk differently about what we are already doing in the class-room. We need to learn how to use the language differently to help stu-dents understand, recognize, and incorporate the six Habits of Mind into their studies,” Clifford added.

A helpful medium in obtain-ing student input and watching the

Habits of Mind at work is the iFALCON club. Student iFAL-CON President David Aguirre hopes to pro-vide members with helpful resources as well as raise $5,000 dollars to award four s c h o l a r s h i p s this year. “The club’s main goal is the scholar-ships, but my personal goal is helping

students succeed,” he said. Student iFALCON Treasurer

Katherine Garcia encourages stu-dents to take advantage of the club’s social networking capabilities. “We’re on Facebook and want to hear from students.” She adds, “Each week we feature useful stu-dent advice which goes along with the iFALCON acronym.”

Even though Cerritos students have many ways to get in touch with the entire iFALCON team, its popularity is still not widespread and coordinators are planning ways to engage the entire school community in an on-going discus-sion.

A “taskforce” has been assem-bled consisting of representatives from each program division on campus to present students, facul-ty, and staff with iFALCON’s latest developments.

iFALCON taskforce meetings are held on the first Monday of ev-ery month in LC 62 at 3 p.m.

Cerritos Cosmetology department offers servicesEsmeralda Infante

Staff [email protected]

Long, short, curly, straight to a downright mess, the Cosmetology Department here at Cerritos can

make your hair problems disappear with a touch of a brush and pair of scissors.

“The program has been here for more than 30 years,” said Irlanda C. Lopez, program facilitator.

Located on the second floor of

the Health building, the cosme-tology department offers services ranging from a simple haircut to European facial massages.

Lopez explained that they offer two types of facials to their clients. One is the European facial which can last from an hour to an hour and thirty minutes. This facial is specializes in removing blackheads. The other is described as a “mini” facial which lasts up to 30 minutes and just cleanses your skin.

With over eight types of ser-vices provided, the most frequently asked for are haircuts and color. “All our haircuts are only five dol-lars, it doesn’t matter if you have long hair or short hair,” Lopez add-ed.

She explained that if a student would want an “Up Do” for a cer-tain occasion it would cost a little more and it really just depends on the length of hair.

The cosmetology department opens its doors to both men and women of all different age groups.

“We get a mixture of men and women in here, but often our clien-

tele is older,” explained Lopez.“During club day we pass out

posters and we promote the pro-gram. We also give out dollar cou-pons, which entitles the client to get a dollar off any service.”

With several clubs here at Cer-ritos, club day is an important day in order to let clubs be known to the student body. Some students think they need to do a little more to get their services known.

“I never knew that the cosme-tology department offered services, I just thought they offered classes,” said Ana Cervantes, psychology major.

Cervantes mentioned that she would like to see more advertising, more posters around campus, not just in the health building where she usually sees them.

“We usually get the highest amount of people during Halloween because they come in to get their makeup done. We even do special effects (make-up),” Lopez said.

She also mentioned that they have special prices during the holi-day season.

Getting Masked: Jessica Retana (top), cosmetology major, prepares a facial mask on Deena Ly (bottom) one of many services offered by the cosmetology department.

Steve Kim/TM

Relief: A campus wide effort from Cerritos college aids Haiti

Sports Chalet, sponsored a col-lection of worn shoes for the Haiti victims in need on campus. The collective efforts of Patricia Riedel, Nursing Instructor of the Cerritos Nursing Department, was a suc-cess, over 250 pairs of shoes were collected for the drive. This sur-passed Riedel’s initial goal of 100 pairs.

The collection initiative ran un-til Jan 27. The donations were de-livered to the Sports Chalet in Hun-tington Beach as a donation from Cerritos College.

“I started this collection through an e-mail I received from a friend, and thought it was a great idea. I wanted to organize something at Cerritos, since they are shoes that will be worn,”Riedel added.

Over 70,000 shoes have been collected. They remain asking for the support, and help of the Ange-lenos.

“I will bring a pair of shoes for the drive; it’s good to see everyone coming together in a time of need. You see it on T.V. and in the news

and now Cerritos College is getting involved,” Christina Torrez, unde-cided major, added.

The efforts of the student body to aid the victims has spread throughout campus as Zhavon Re-sendez, psychology major said, “I knew about the donation the ASCC put together.”

“For the school to get involved it is just an amazing act, they are taking the extra step to help out.” Resendez added.

“We need to unite for the people of Haiti and be the light of those submerged in darkness,” Karen Za-vala, biology major, said.

The music department is host-ing a relief concert on Friday Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. and will be held in BC 51. A two-dollar entrance fee will be collected at the door as a form of donation, also a donation box will be placed for any other contribu-tions.

Vice President of the music club Cindy Hernandez stated, “we are enthusiastic that the music depart-ment encouraged and supported

Continued from page (1)

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Vol. 54© 2010 Talon Marks

Spring 2010STAFF

Editor-in-ChiefElieth Koulzons

Online EditorRick Gomez

News EditorJoey Berumen

Arts EditorMegan Winters

Opinion EditorSamantha Robinson

Sports EditorDaniel Sandoval

Copy EditorMark Murray

Multimedia EditorAshley Aguirre

WPMD EditorTito Benavides

Production ManagerErnesto Gomez

StaffVivian Aguirre

Ivonne BurciagaDalia CamachoGigi CervantesNatalie Costello

Oliver DiazVictor Diaz

Orlando DominguezRicardo GarciaFrank Gonzalez

Marquisha HamesKarina HernandezGregory Horsey Jr.Esmeralda InfanteJoshua Kaanaana

Steven KimMoses LopezAndrea MoraMark MurraySheila Olaiz

Andrew PerezVania Pineda

Steven QuintanaJuan Ramos

Nicole RodriguezMiguel Salas

Wendy SolorioTiffini ThigpenCherelle Tisby

Billy TurnerAlina TurpinRebecca VegaScott WatkinsJustin Witron

Faculty AdviserRich Cameron

Instructional AideAlicia Edquist

•EDITORIAL•

Letters to the editor are welcome. They may be submitted both online and in person. In all cases, letters must be signed with real names before they will be considered for publication, either online or in print. Campus-related issues are given priority. Letters may be edited for length, though online versions tend to include full content, as long as it is not libelous or in poor taste. You may deliver letters to FA 42 or contact the editor by e-mail at [email protected].

Hitting a major league pitch can arguably be the hardest task to accomplish in all of sports. Just imag-ine standing under those monstrous stadium lights, trying to perfectly connect that narrow 34inch wooden bat with a blazing 95 mph fastball.

Sounds tough, but even this mind boggling task was conquered by some of the great few who set ma-jor league baseball hitting records that would seem to last for the ages.

Well, as we all know, records were made to be broken, but should records broken by cheaters have their place in the books of greatness? Performance enhancing drugs or steroids left a deep scar in the game of baseball. It’s only right that record holding players who have been associated with steroids have their names forever scarred by an asterisk.

Think about the many other hundreds of major leaguers out there playing ball everyday trying to reach that next level, shedding their blood, sweat, and tears. Then to hear that the game those players love so much and have been playing their whole life has been disgraced and abused by steroids. It is a straight slap to the face.

Steroid users claim that their sudden success throughout the league had nothing to do with ste-

roids and that the only reason they ever got involved with steroids was to get back in the game as a result of a serious injury or to rid the effects of getting older.

That’s pure nonsense. Of course steroids contrib-uted to their success. Since steroids grant players the extra power that is so desired by hitters, how many home runs would have just been deep fly balls to the warning track?

From 1998 through 2001, talented hitters Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa erupted and now hold the top six slots for the most home runs hit in a single season.

In 2001, Bonds belted out 73 home runs to set the now standing single season record, breaking that of McGwire’s who hit 70 home runs in 1998.

But wait, didn’t Bonds test positive for three types of steroids in 2000? Didn’t McGwire just recently confess to using steroids? Let’s not forget

about Sammy who tested positive for steroids and was also caught using a corked bat in 2003.

So, I ask again, is it really fair for these ground-breaking records to stand although the players were taking steroids?

Truthfully, the records should stand and be in the record books because, after all, those players did actually clear the fence as many times as they did, but the infamous asterisk should be placed by their name stating that they have been involved with steroid use.

In 1961, Yankees right fielder, Roger Maris, set the single season record with 61 home runs and stood for 37 years until it reached its demise when the steroid era hit.

How would he have felt if he heard that someone who cheated broke his astonishing record that he worked so hard to gain by hard work and talent?

When all is said and done, the steroid users may say they’re sorry for ever touching the stuff and shed a couple of tears on camera, but their records and all of baseball will forever be tainted by steroids and an asterisk would be a perfect way to exemplify it.

With the economy hanging by a thread, health care reform turning into a debacle, and the Supreme Court ruling that companies deserve just as much of a voice in democracy as humans, it’s no surprise that people across the country have become increasingly frustrated and un-happy with their political leaders at all levels.

The approval rating for President Obama has steadily decreased to below 50 percent since he first took office, Congress is even worse at barely above 25 percent, and the citizens of Massachusetts elected a Republican to the Senate for the first time in 38 years.

Locally, Cerritos College student Stevie Merino has gone beyond the voting booth and is attempting to change the leadership of her hometown by running for Mayor of Long Beach.

While seen by some as extreme, outlandish, or even as a joke, Merino’s candidacy is an inspiration to those who are unhappy with the status quo.

Merino has taken matters into her own hands and is fighting for not just a single cause, but for a whole plat-form that she believes in. By taking this leap into politics, Merino has set an example the rest of us should follow.

Although it’s not feasible, nor productive for all of us that would like to see changes made in our society to take the direct action of running for office, each one of us can work to better society in our own way.

Whether it be through volunteering your time and energy to a specific cause, donating whatever you can to an organization, attending your local town hall meeting, contacting your Congressperson, voting, or even signing a petition, there are countless ways to get involved and try to better your community.

If Merino can manage to go to school, work, and run for Mayor, is there really a good excuse for the rest of us to sit back and let others determine how the world around us is shaped?

No matter your political leanings, it’s time, right now, to follow Merino’s lead and get out there and take action in whatever way you can.

TALO

N M

ARKS Andrew Perez

Staff writer [email protected]

Steroid users should be marked with a scarlet asterisk

Illustration by Moses Lopez/TM

Merino answers call of duty

FREE SPEECH ZONEHow do you feel about a Cerritos College student running for mayor of Long Beach?Compiled by: Samantha Robinson

Photos by: Joshua Kaanaana

“I think it says a lot about students here and how moti-vated they are.”

“I would want to know if he has morals and if he follows the word of God and all of Jesus’ teachings.”

Jason Rodaschild development major

Brittany Schafferculinary arts major

“It’s really cool because they are representing Cerritos College.”

“Wow, that would be cool. I would ask if he is ready.”

“It’s cool because it shows that age doesn’t matter. It’s an inspiration for me.”

“It depends on his qualifica-tions.”

Cesar Altamiranoundecided major

Jennifer Berruetafashion design major

Lorenzo Jaureguipsychology major

Stacie Altamiranoaccounting major

“They may say they’re sorry for ever touching the stuff and shed a couple tears on camera, but their records and all of baseball will forever be tainted.”

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Wednesday, February 3, 2010 • www.talonmarks.com4 - ARTS

Providing relief through musicMusic club does its part to help Haiti earthquake victims

Megan WintersArts Editor

[email protected]

“Building Unity through Mu-sic” is the motto for Cerritos Col-lege music club, and unity is what they are building.

After the devastating earth-quake that shook the lives of mil-lions, the music club will be throw-ing a relief concert for the victims of Haiti.

The concert will be a fundraiser in which money will be raised and sent to the Red Cross in support of those in need.

Open auditions will be held Friday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the Music Department in Room BC 53, where all styles of music are welcomed.

Students may sign up for au-ditions by signing up on the club communication board which is lo-cated in front of the music depart-ment offices.

Discretion of what music style is appropriate for this cause will be present, but the event will be as musically diverse as possible.

The concert is set for Feb. 26 at 6 p.m. and will be held in BC 51.

Rusty Kennedy, president of music club, has been active in the club for years and feels this is an event that is needed.

“It is our part to act now and do what we can do. We are not in their position, but we feel this will be a positive forward movement,” Kennedy said.

Although previous concerts provided by the music club have been free of charge, this is strictly a donation concert that will be going to a good cause.

The fee will be $2 at the door and any other donations will be ac-cepted in donation boxes that will be available.

Vice president of the music club Cindy Hernandez is excited that the club is pulling together to make this happen.

Hernandez explains, “It was an idea that came up right after the earthquake happened. We have so much fun playing our music and it’s the least we can do.”

This is not the only benefit concert the music club has put on, as Toys for Tots and canned food drive concerts have been put on in addition the upcoming Haiti Relief concert.

Kennedy goes on to say, “As a

club we want to be more active and showcase our music and do what we can to raise money for those in need. (It) shows what else we’re about.”

Victor DiazStaff Writer

[email protected]

The Re:Creation art show is set to open on Monday. It will feature several works of art by many well-known artists.

To someone who may not be familiar with art shows on campus, they may be under the impression that it will feature solely paintings. However, this show will feature sev-eral forms of art, including photog-raphy, sculptures, performance art, digital art, and abstract art.

According to art gallery cura-tor James MacDevitt, the show will address several issues, including is-sues of identity and politics.

MacDevitt also goes on to state that the title of the show is a play on words, as the person reading it could read it as the title to an e-mail message, or the word “recreation.”

The title is meant to state what will be featured at the show, which is a number of works that have been recreated by these artists as an homage to other artists of years past. MacDevitt refers to this art as

“modernism,” a term playing on the modernist movement at the end of the 20th century, as well as referring to the modification that featured artists have done to older works.

Some of the artists whose work will be displayed at the show in-clude Artemio, a performance art-ist, Juan Capistran, who is known for his photography and sculptures, Ray Beldner, another sculptor, as well as many others.

Many of the works that will be featured express social awareness, including Artemio’s “Coyoteria,” a performance art piece portraying the events of human trafficking, as well as a sculpture by Beldner enti-tled “Capital Flight,” which is made out of sewn U.S. currency.

The exhibit will run until March 18, and it will be open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, and Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. nightly.

The first night of the exhibit will feature a reception, which will run from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission to this event is free.

New technology has made DJ’ing easier than ever

Wendy SolorioStaff Writer

[email protected]

For many disc jockeys, playing music is an art form. For others, it’s become a trend and quite easy to imitate.

With all the new technology, and even with the new video game DJ Hero being released, one has to wonder: Is being a DJ so easy now, that anyone can do it?

Some say yes, that DJ’ing has become a lost art. You don’t really need skills or knowledge to play music at a club or a party. All you need is a laptop, some music soft-ware, big speakers, and you qualify as a DJ.

Others feel that the new style is simply evolution. Technology is

constantly changing and DJ’ing is simply catching up with technologi-cal advancements.

“The old school way of DJ’ing re-quires you to blend the music by ear. You would have to listen to the beats and sounds with headphones,” Er-nesto Gomez, local DJ and Cerritos College student, explained. “Today, you don’t even need headphones. You can easily play music using a MIDI controller.”

Others have more of a modern opinion on this matter. “It’s plainly evolution,” local disc jockey DJ Rawkus said.

“The use of laptops while DJ’ing gives you mobility without the clut-ter of vinyl records, which is good,” he said, “But they are very simple to use, and allows just about anyone to be a DJ, which is where I think it creates a problem.”

So what are these new tech-nological advancements that have changed the face of DJ’ing through-out the past decade?

Well, most people are familiar with the old way of doing it. A DJ would use headphones and turnta-bles to mix music and make scratch-ing sounds. This required the DJ to pay close attention to what he was doing at all times.

Today, however, the style has drastically changed. If you’ve been to a club or a party recently where there was a DJ playing music, chances are you may have not even seen him wearing headphones.

The DJ’s setup most likely con-sisted of a controller, some speakers, and a laptop. The DJ might also not have been too engrossed in what he was playing, because the laptop was doing all the work.

Perhaps it is easier now to be a DJ. Some might plug their iPod into a large speaker at a party and con-sider themselves a DJ. Others might play DJ Hero, get a high score and believe they can do the real thing.

“The new style just doesn’t have the authenticity of actual vinyls,” DJ

Rawkus said.“It lacks the talents of scratching,

crackling sounds, versatility, and the thrill of digging for the records you love,” he added.

Software such as Serato Scratch Live has allowed DJs to still retain the old school feel of vinyl with the added convenience of MP3s on their computer.

Gomez states, “I like using Scratch Live because I have all my music organized, and I’m still able to throw in a few scratches or cuts in with vinyl.”

Vinyl in the 21st Century

Courtesy of MCTA sign of hope: Haitian guards raise the national flag to half mast in front of the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was destroyed by the earthquake Jan. 19.

Re:Creating the works of the past

Courtesy of MCT

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 • www.talonmarks.comSPORTS - 5

Women’s tennis swept in opener

Men’s soccer player graced with national title

Scott WatkinsStaff Writer

[email protected]

Designated player Gabriella

Villarreal, hit a grand slam to cap off an eight-run third to lead the Cerritos College softball team to a one-sided victory Monday night.

The Falcon’s aggressive offense and Santiago Canyon College’s in-ability to overcome a strong pitch-ing performance led to the 12-1 win.

“This offense is explosive,” head coach Kodee Murray said, “Santia-go Canyon College is a good team, but it’s hard to stop the offense we have.”

The Falcons are now 5-1 this season with their only loss coming to South Coast Conference rivals

East Los Angeles last Sunday in the Glendale tournament.

“This team is very confident, we just had a bad inning against East Los Angeles,” Murray said.

One player had a different take on Sunday’s lost.

“We learned that we have to finish games,” Villarreal said, “That loss gets us ready for the season. it is a turning point.”

The Hawks were able to keep it close in the first few innings hold-ing the Falcons offense in check, at least compared to the storm that followed.

Second basemen Lindsey Mar-quez said, “They are a team that is frustrating to play because they play small ball, but once we started hitting we got the pitcher down and the whole team fed off of that.”

The bases were still loaded with only one out but pitcher Hillary pitched her way out of the jam and it was smooth sailing for the Fal-cons from then on out.

From that point on Perez-Ash-ley didn’t allow another base run-ner.

Perez-Ashley is now 4-0 on the season.

The Falcons first run came of the bat of catcher Samantha Vaau-lu, when she blasted a two-run home run off of the Hawks starting pitcher Kayla Nash

Up next for the Falcons is Riv-erside College at home on Wednes-day at 3 p.m.

Steven QuintanaStaff Writer

[email protected]

The National Soccer Coaches

Association of America named one of Cerritos’ own, the National Player of the Year.

Star forward Luis Gonzalez was the recipient of this award for last years soccer season.

This sopho-more out of Long Beach Millikan High School was also the team’s cap-tain and is used to being part of a soc-cer program.

“I have been playing soccer (on a team) since I was six or seven years old,” Gonzalez said, along with national recognition, Gonza-

lez has been awarded several other honors.

These honors include the Cali-fornia Community Colleges Ath-letic Association’s October male athlete of the month, a two-time All-

American and a two-time South Coast Confer-ence player of the year, and the state finals MVP; despite his team losing in the playoffs.

You would think that with so many awards as a star athlete, Gonzalez would have expected to be dubbed player of the year but this was

the highest honor he has received.“I never expected this,” Gonza-

lez said referring to being named

the NSCAA’s player of the year.“This is the biggest accomplish-

ment of my life,” he added.Gonzalez led the Cerritos men’s

soccer team to a No. 2 national ranking and a state championship last year as a freshman.

“He really set the bar high (for the team),” said men’s soccer head coach Benny Artiaga.

“It must be a great honor to be recognized as the best player in the U.S,” Artiaga said.

“he’s a great leader; he’s our team captain and overall just a great kid.”

Gonzalez finished the season with 27 goals and 18 assists for 72 points and with a total of 51 goals and 35 assists for 137 points in his two years on the Cerritos College soccer team.

Though Gonzalez has per-formed well in the past two seasons, he still is not sure if he is going to stick around for a third season and remain a Falcon.

at a Glance

2/3 WednesdayBasketball

Men vs. **ECC Compton Center 6 PMWomen @ Pasadena City 5:30 PM

SoftballWomen vs. Riverside 3 PM

2/4 ThusdayBaseball

Men vs. Fullerton 2:00 PM

TennisMen vs. Irvine Valley 2:00 PMWomen vs. Cypress 2:00 PM

2/5 Fri. - 2/6 SatBasketball

Fri. Men @ L.A Harbor 7:30 PM Softball

Fri. Women @ Antelope Valley 7:30 PM

Baseball Fri. Men vs. Glendale 2 PM

Sat. Men vs. Los Angeles Valley 1 PMSwimming

Men/Women @ Waterman Pentath-lon/Relays 7:30 PM

Track & Field Sat. Men/Women vs. All-Comers

Meet 9:30 AM

2/9 TuesdaySoftball

Women @ Pasadena City 3:00 PMTennis

Women @ Fullerton 2 PMMen @ Cal Poly Pamona 2 PM

2/10 TuesdayBasketball

Men @ L.A. Southwest 7:30 PMWomen @ L.A. Southwest 5:30 PM

Ricardo GarciaStaff Writer

[email protected]

The Cerritos College women’s

tennis team opened the season with a non-conference loss to Irvine Val-ley College Tuesday.

D e s p i t e i n d i v i d u a l efforts by sophomores Michelle Yi and Alana Johnson Cer-ritos was un-able to win any matches and suffered its first loss of the season.

Although T u e s d a y ’ s outcome was rough Cerritos Coach Glenn Myer said, “The team has a lot of potential and we expect to see good things as the season progresses.”

After falling behind early , 5-2, Johnson fought back pushing her match against Irvine’s Tina Vuong to a tiebreaker that lasted two hours before eventually losing.

“I played well, but I can definite-ly improve my game and learn from my mistakes in this loss,” Johnson said.

Michelle Yi, who has been des-

ignated as the No. 1 player for Cer-ritos, suffered a loss as well.

Yi lost to Irvine’s Natalie Loria dropping both sets 6-1 and 6-4 de-spite a second set surge.

Yi said, “I kind of gave up in to-day’s game but I learned a good les-son and I expect to do better in my

next match.”Yi and

Johnson have been designat-ed as the No. 1 and two play-ers on the team and are the only two re-turning players from last years 12-4 squad.

A l t h o u g h Cerritos did poorly in its season debut ,

the players aren’t worried about the remainder of the season.

Johnson said, ”If we continue to improve and work as a team I think we’ll do great throughout the sea-son.”

With a team comprised of near-ly all freshmen Coach Myer said, “I haven’t been discouraged and ex-pect this team to improve as they gain experience.”

Cerritos will get the opportunity to improve it’s record to 1-1 when they play Orange Coast College Thursday at home.

Steve Kim/TM Women’ s Tennis: Michelle Yi tried to win her match as her teamates were unable to do against Santiago Canyon College.

Swimmers await the new upcoming season

Softball wins with aggressive offense and pitching defense

Ricardo GarciaStaff Writer

[email protected]

Red-shirt sophomore Louie Es-

pinoza and freshman PJ Gabayeron

look to make a splash for the Cer-

ritos College men’s swimming as

it takes its first dive into the newly

built aquatic center this season.

“I can already see the impact the

new pool has made in our training,”

head coach Joe Abing said, “We

have a lot of space to train.”

Espinoza swam for Cerritos two

seasons ago, and after taking a year

off is now back as one of the top

swimmers for the Falcons.“I am more serious and dedi-

cated this season than I have been in the past,” he said.

Gabayeron, who swims 100-breaststroke and the 200-indi-vual medley, believes he has some-thing to prove this season.

“Last year, my senior year at Cerritos High School, I was done with swimming and a lot of my friends from other schools smoked me in the water,” Gabayeron said, “So, now I have to show them that that’s not who I am as swimmer.”

Both Espinoza and Gabayer-on will be competing in the same

events but haven’t really said much

to each other yet this season.

“We are kind of playing shy right

now, we really don’t talk much,” Es-

pinoza said, “but there is definitely

a little competition between us.”

Abing believes both swimmers

will have a chance at breaking a few

school records this season.

“We swim about 20 miles a week

plus weight training and a little run-

ning,” Abing said, “It is a very chal-

lenging sport mentally and takes a

lot of dedication.”

The Falcons begin their season

Feb. 5 at the Palomar invitational.

The team has a lot of potential and we expect to see good things as the season progresses.

Glenn MyersTennis Coach

Luis Gonzolaez

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 • www.talonmarks.com6 - LIFE

February 3, 2010

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